The proposed program of research examines situational and individual difference variables that influence people's willingness to ask for help and their manner of requesting help. It also examines specific verbal and nonverbal mediators of the effects of these variables on the outcomes of helping interactions. The proposed research will be guided by a process model of asking for help. Four series of studies will be conducted in order to (1) validate empirically seven hypothesized orientations towards asking for help (imposition, indebtedness, inadequacy, shyness, achievement, social bond, casual), and to develop scales to assess these orientations; (2) examine the verbal and nonverbal characteristics of the help requests made by subjects varying in their initial help-seeking orientations, and to relate these particular verbal and nonverbal characteristics to the help-seekers's effectiveness in obtaining help; (3) study helpers' verbal and nonverbal reactions to help requests varying in legitimacy and in affective tenor, and (4) relate help-seekers' perceptions of and sensitivity to helpers' reactions to their willingness to ask for help and their manner of requesting help in different situations.